Upper Mustang with the Damodar Kunda Extension

This is the itinerary for trekkers who've read about Damodar Kunda in passing and want to actually go there, rather than treating it as background colour in another strategy's own route description. From Lo Manthang, the trail follows the same initial path toward Dhi that Strategy 2 uses, but rather than continuing on to Yara, this itinerary turns north instead, climbing steadily toward Damodar Kunda itself — a lake genuinely sacred in Hindu tradition, associated with Lord Vishnu, and a real pilgrimage destination for devotees making the same journey this itinerary follows for entirely religious reasons. Reaching it means fording its own outflow river barefoot, since no bridge exists at the crossing point, and climbing to genuinely the highest altitude documented anywhere in this trek's source material — higher than Chogo La, higher than any pass on the standard loop. From the lake, the itinerary descends back through Dhi to rejoin the route toward Tangbe and Tetang, finishing, like Strategy 2, at Muktinath — creating a real pilgrimage arc from one sacred site to another rather than a standard cultural loop. Nineteen days, this trek's single highest point, and a genuinely different kind of Upper Mustang trip for trekkers whose interest in this region is at least partly devotional rather than only cultural or scenic.